‘That’s quite enough,’ Luke told her, leaning round to pat her neck. ‘Greedy girl.’
Fliss was enchanted. Luke led her around the yard, introducing her to each horse as he checked that they were all fed and watered, and safely tucked in for the night. They were
all glossy and gorgeous, clearly very well cared for, and all of them greeted Luke with pleasure. She had enormous fun handing them all their polos and stroking their necks until they whinnied with delight.
‘How do you know all their names?’ she asked, after she’d met the fourth identical brown horse in a row.
Luke raised his eyebrows. ‘It’s my job.’
‘Yes, but they all look the same. How do you know which is which?’ She was surprised that there were no names over the stable doors, but Luke had told her it was a security measure in case anyone attempted to nobble a particular horse before a race.
He shook his head. ‘They don’t all look the same. Not if you look carefully.’
‘Oh.’ Fliss peered into the stall where she had just met Dangerous Liaison. ‘What am I looking for?’
Luke stood behind her and pointed. ‘It’s the same as people. Size, shape, colouring, distinguishing marks, mannerisms. Look at his ears.’
‘They’re a bit darker,’ she said doubtfully.
‘Yes. And the mane and tail, too.’
‘Right, I see. What else?’
Luke clicked his fingers and made a noise to call the horse towards them. He took hold of the bridle and turned him so that Fliss could see his shoulder.
‘There’s a mark!’ She traced her finger along the jagged path.
‘Yes, a scar. He had an encounter with some barbed wire when he was a young foal.’
‘Poor thing.’ Fliss gave him an extra pat. ‘You must love them all very much.’
Luke crossed his arms and gave Fliss a stern look. ‘They’re not pets.’
She frowned. ‘Yes, but still.’
‘This is my business, Felicity. My livelihood. I know these horses. I understand them. I train them to get the best out of them. Emotions don’t come into it.’ His voice was cold and business-like, but Fliss had seen the way he talked to the horses and she wasn’t convinced.
She turned back to look at Dangerous Liaison. ‘Not at all?’
‘No. I can’t afford to get emotional.’
‘How sad.’ She put another polo on her hand and watched as the horse took it gratefully, stroking his neck.
Not that she believed him. Luke had as many emotions as the next person, even if he kept them well hidden. Fliss had felt the way the electricity sizzled between them when he kissed her and she was very keen to see just how deep those particular emotions ran beneath his skin.
The next stall was empty but as they passed it in silence, Fliss heard the faint sound of miaowing.
‘I don’t suppose you care about your cat either,’ she teased Luke.
‘I don’t have a cat.’
Fliss turned to him. ‘Yes, you do. I heard it.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘In here.’ Fliss dragged open the stable door and went to investigate. In the dim light at the back of the stall, she found what she was looking for. Curled up in the straw, with huge frightened eyes gazing up at her, a tiny kitten was mewling in distress. Fliss instantly dropped to her knees and placed the little cat in her lap.
The straw rustled as Luke followed her into the stable. Fliss looked up at him, with wide, pleading eyes. ‘Can we keep it?’
Luke raised an eyebrow. ‘We?’
She ignored this irrelevance and bent her head over the kitten, stroking its fuzzy orange fur with one finger. ‘It needs a home.’
‘Maybe it has one. Is there a collar?’
‘No.’ The kitten had relaxed into her hold and closed its eyes in a satisfied sleep. Fliss raised her eyes. ‘Luke?’ He was leaning against the stable wall, watching her with an unfathomable expression.
After a long pause, he levered himself upright and nodded at Fliss. ‘Bring it into the house. I’ll call the vet and see if anyone’s reported it missing.’
‘And if not?’ She scrambled to her feet, cradling the kitten carefully in the crook of her arm so as not to wake it.
Luke drew in a long breath. ‘If not, we’ll see.’
She gave him her widest smile and reached up to press a kiss on his cheek. ‘You don’t fool me for a second, Luke Caldecott. Underneath that cool, controlled façade you’ve got a heart like a marshmallow.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ He held the stable door open for Fliss and whistled for Benjy to follow them home.
It wasn’t his heart that resembled a marshmallow, it was his head. Every time he decided that he was done with Felicity Merrick, she found some way of clinging on just a little bit longer in his life. Now she had that infernal kitten in her lap, she was fending off Benjy’s over-enthusiastic advances, and looking completely at home in his kitchen.
Luke went to ring the vet.
‘Answer phone,’ he told Fliss curtly when he returned. ‘He’ll ring back in the morning since it’s not an emergency.’
Fliss shrugged. She’d obviously convinced herself that the kitten was staying. Luke stared at it resentfully. Presumably he was the one who was expected to pay for its vet’s bills and feed it and stop Benjy from attacking it.
Unless she planned to take the cat home with her. ‘I expect I’ve got a basket somewhere you can use,’ he offered.
‘What for?’
‘To carry the cat on the train.’
Fliss looked up at him in bewilderment. ‘Where to?’
He shrugged. ‘Wherever it is that you live. I thought you said you wanted to keep it. If Charlie can’t find its owner, you might as well take it with you tomorrow.’
‘Tomorrow?’
Luke spelled it out for her so there could be no mistake. ‘When you go home. You can stay the night while we find out about the kitten, and then tomorrow you can take it home. You’ll need to make an appointment with your local vet to get its injections and have it sterilised.’
‘Oh. Right. Of course. Only my landlord doesn’t allow pets.’
‘Of course.’ He might have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
‘He might make an exception for little Marshmallow,’ she offered. ‘But if not…’
Marshmallow. Luke decided to ignore that dig. ‘If not, what will you do?’ Once again, he made it clear that the animal was her responsibility.
Fliss opened her eyes wide. They were cat’s eyes, Luke suddenly realised, with that golden-green gaze. ‘I don’t know. Find somewhere else to live?’
Great. She’d be out of a job and out of her home. As much as he told himself that he wasn’t responsible for either situation, Luke couldn’t help but worry.
They ordered takeaway for dinner which Fliss tried to pay for but Luke brushed her attempts away crossly. Once Marshmallow was settled into a makeshift bed in the warmest corner of the kitchen near the range cooker, Benjy followed them into the sitting room.
Fliss tucked her legs up underneath her and curled comfortably into the corner of the dark red velvet sofa with Benjy at her side.
‘He’s not allowed on the furniture,’ Luke said in a resigned tone.
Fliss merely winked at him and made no attempt to remove the dog. ‘Am I allowed on the furniture?’
Luke rolled his eyes but didn’t comment.
They drank their coffee in more or less companionable silence. Fliss scratched Benjy’s stomach so that he rolled ecstatically onto his back, but her eyes kept glancing over to Luke. His gaze was steadily fixed on the unlit fireplace but his jaw was tight and the muscles in his forearms were tense. She wondered how long it would take for him to crack.
Eventually, Luke reached over to remove Fliss’s empty cup and set it to one side. He shoved the dog off the sofa and sat down next to her.
‘I have four spare rooms,’ he muttered.
‘Okay.’
‘Nice rooms. Comfortable beds. You’d like them.’ Luke shot her a despairing glance.
Fliss bit back her giggle. ‘I expect so.’
‘Though I’d need to find some clean sheets for you.’
‘I wouldn’t want you to go to any trouble.’ His tanned, strong forearms rested along lean, long thighs.
‘No trouble.’
She didn’t answer. He already knew exactly what she wanted. He just needed to convince himself that this was a good idea. She waited.
‘One night,’ Luke bit out eventually.
‘One night,’ she agreed. ‘If that’s all you want.’
‘That’s all that’s on offer,’ he said harshly.
‘Well then,’ She trailed a finger down his arm, ‘Let’s not waste any more of it.’
Luke groaned and dragged her onto his lap. He twisted his hands into her hair and held her face inches from his own.
‘I’ve been wanting to do this again all day,’ he admitted.
‘You have admirable self-control,’ she teased.
‘Witch.’ Luke pulled her mouth down and showed her just how much self-control he still possessed as he kissed her softly, briefly, tantalisingly until Fliss was whimpering with frustration and need.
When he tipped her off him and told her to wait, Fliss groaned in agony.
Luke shooed Benjy out of the room and reappeared moments later with a silver foil packet that he chucked down on the coffee table. ‘Now where were we?’
‘Not nearly far enough along,’ Fliss told him. She got up and stood in front of Luke, a challenge in her eyes as she undid each button on his shirt, taking a moment to press a kiss on the warm, tanned skin revealed beneath. He shrugged the shirt off, letting it fall to the floor, while Fliss’s busy hands dealt with his belt and his flies.
‘Enough,’ he said, placing a hand over hers to still her actions. ‘My turn.’
His gaze roamed over her with such heat that, though she was still fully dressed, Fliss felt her skin burning up with desire. It took every ounce of her self-control not to rip her clothes off and wrap herself around Luke’s semi-naked body. But his eyes held hers and she forced herself to wait.
Luke took a step forward. They were just millimetres apart. The warmth of his body burnt into her and the pulse in his neck captivated her. Fliss bent to lick it.
He quivered under her touch, but his hands held her away. ‘Patience,’ he warned.
‘I’m not very good at patience,’ she admitted.
He smiled. ‘I’ll teach you.’
Fliss nodded. ‘And then I’ll show you how to lose control utterly. Shall we guess which one will be more fun?’
Luke shook his head. ‘The whole point of being patient,’ he murmured in her ear, sending shivers down her spine, ‘is that it heightens the explosion when you finally let go.’
‘Oh,’ she breathed, shakily.
He had one hand touching her now. It skimmed lightly down her spine and over her dress until it came to rest on the bare flesh of her thighs. Fliss wiggled against it, trying to encourage Luke to explore further but he held it maddeningly still, just letting the pad of his thumb circle gently against her skin.
She had to keep reminding herself to breathe.
When he kissed her again, she forgot altogether. Luke lifted his head with a wry grin. ‘Anyone would think you’d never done this before.’
Fliss bit her lip. ‘Sorry. I got a bit carried away.’ She had been kissed plenty of times, but she couldn’t remember it ever feeling like this before.
He smoothed his thumb over her swollen lips. ‘We can take it slower, if you like.’
‘No!’ She couldn’t hold back the instinctive protest.
Luke laughed for the first time that day. Fliss’s heart did a strange little dance at the delicious sound of it. ‘Fine,’ he said. ‘But remember to breathe this time. In and out. Okay?’
‘Okay. Could you just give me a second?’ She tugged his sweater over her head, giving her overheated flesh a chance to cool off a bit. ‘That’s better.’
‘Much better,’ Luke agreed. ‘Though the socks are an intriguing touch.’
‘Well, if you’d been doing your job properly…’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Oh, I see. Undressing you is my job, is it? I’ve certainly been neglecting that part of my duty.’
‘I’ll be sure to mention it in your performance review.’
He turned her round and found the zip in her blue dress. Smoothly and surely, he pulled it down, pushing the silky fabric aside, and caressing her exposed flesh with his clever tongue. Fliss’s head fell forward and her knees buckled. Luke slid a strong arm around her waist to hold her up while he continued his gentle attack on her senses.
‘This rug,’ she managed to get out.
‘Hmmm?’ Luke’s hand was exploring under her dress, just grazing the underside of her breast.